Teen girls say Kevin Foster had sex with them in church

WESTLAKE, Ohio (WKYC) -- A suburban music teacher was convicted of furnishing booze to two underage girls, but prosecutors say that was just the final touch of a plan to manipulate his students into fulfilling his sordid sexual fantasies.

In court last week, Kevin Foster was sentenced to 60 days in the Cuyahoga County Jail.

"I take full responsibility for providing the alcohol to the two adults under 21," Foster told Rocky River Municipal Court Judge Donna Congeni Fitzsimmons.

Those two adults, as Foster called them, were actually two 18-year-old students who had sought out the acclaimed musician and teacher in the hopes of starting musical careers.

Instead, prosecutors say, the girls found themselves ensnared in a "prolonged psychological campaign" during which the 37-year-old coerced them into having sex.

"The furnishing of alcohol was essentially the tool he used to complete his design," said Westlake Prosecutor Sean Kelleher.

In videotaped interviews with the two victims, Westlake police worried aloud that Foster might have done this to other girls. After all, he worked with high school choirs in Westlake, Bay Village and Olmsted Falls.

"I really hope that he's not teaching girls who are 13, 14 years old and making advances on them," said the detective.

The girls told police that Foster warmed them up with quick text messages about how their day was going.

"That's weird and I knew it was weird," said one of the girls."I know that's weird."

But the trickle of text messages turned into a constant stream -- and the tone grew increasingly flirtatious.

"When I was babysitting his kids, he was texting me through the whole time," the girl continued. "He had told me there was a blanket downstairs, 'It's nice and warm if you want to know' ... like suggesting touching myself."

She said Foster eventually made his move during lessons at his home.

"He would talk about his penis and be like, 'Well it's getting there for you,' ... and then he would start rubbing my leg," the girl said.

Both girls say Foster took them into the basement of his Arthur Avenue home, where he conducts his private lessons, to have sex.

"After it happened, did he say anything to you?" the Westlake detective asked the girl.

"He said, 'Well, that's enough to get me arrested,'" the girl said.

The second girl said she agreed to have sex with Foster because she was afraid he would no longer care for her or be her friend.

"I remember feeling very guilty after," the second girl said. "I was at an emotional low. I'm an awful person."

Last August, Foster hatched a plan to have a threesome, according to police.

He arranged to have both girls meet him at the Westlake United Methodist Church on Center Ridge where Foster was the choir director at the time.

Foster and the girls initially sat in the church and sang songs, according to the girls. He later gave them beer and tricked one of the girls into kissing the other.

From there, police say, Foster took them to the basement for sex.

"At the end of the night, he sent me something saying, 'Checkmate,' meaning he had gotten what he wanted," the second girl told the detective.

Kevin Foster declined to be interviewed from his jail cell, where he is serving his sentence. But in court, Foster told the judge that he did not trick these two girls into having sex.

"A caring individual is who I am and tricks is not what I'm about," Foster said. "I take responsibility for providing the alcohol, but the innuendo is not who I am."